Sodom Road Exit by Amber Dawn Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $21.95 / 9781551527161 Reviewed by Ben Matthews * There is a moment in Amber Dawn’s Sodom Road Exit when a character reads a letter that she is so certain is a breakup letter, that it becomes one. The words on the page, the love…
Read more #602 Second chance at Crystal Beach
Collapsible by Tim Conley Vancouver: New Star Books, 2019 $18.00 / 9781554201518 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn with Ginny Ratsoy * The author of several previous books of poetry, Tim Conley teaches twentieth-century literature at Brock University, specializing in modernists such as Joyce and Beckett, as well as “experimental novelists and avant-garde poets,” according to his…
Read more #594 Talking feet & werewolf expertise
At the Wilderness Edge: The Rise of the Antidevelopment Movement on Canada’s West Coast by J.I. (Jack) Little Montréal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019 $29.95 / 9780773556409 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw * Bear with me, please. Shouldn’t “Wilderness” be in the possessive? At the Wilderness’s Edge maybe? If so, this is a shocking…
Read more #593 Wilderness campaigns & cultures
Damage Done by the Storm by Jack Hodgins Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2019 $18.95 / 9781553805595 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy and Alexandra Horsman * First published by McClelland and Stewart in 2004, this collection has been reissued with one story added. We are happy to report that Damage Done by the Storm withstands the test of…
Read more #561 At home with Jack Hodgins
The God of Gods: A Canadian Play by Carroll Aikins, edited and with an introduction by Kailin Wright Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2016 $29.95 / 9780776623276 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published Feb. 19, 2019 * Although a remarkable piece of British Columbia’s theatre history played out not far from where I write and…
Read more #490 Applauding a forgotten play
Property Values by Charles Demers Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $17.95 / 9781551527277 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw First published Feb. 4, 2019 * We need to talk about … Burquitlam. It’s liminal. Which is a scholarly word meaning it occupies “a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.” (Thank you,…
Read more #478 Land deals in Burquitlam
Michael Lait reviews two books: Small Cities, Big Issues: Reconceiving Community in a Neoliberal Era by Christopher Walmsley and Terry Kading (editors) Edmonton: Athabasca University Press, 2018 $37.95 / 9781771991636 Free pdf available here. * No Straight Lines: Local Leadership and the Path From Government to Governance in Small Cities by Terry Kading (editor) Calgary:…
Read more #473 Small cities take centre stage
Before and After the State: Politics, Poetics, and People(s) in the Pacific Northwest by Allan K. McDougall, Lisa Philips, and Daniel L. Boxberger Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018 $34.95 / 9780774836685 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw * One cannot these days escape the slogan of the Trump campaign: “Make America Great Again.” Set aside GDP, living…
Read more #433 Discord on the Pacific slope
Gracie by Joan MacLeod Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $16.95 / 9781772012026 * Thanks for Giving by Kevin Loring Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $19.95 / 9781772012187 Both books reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published October 26, 2018 * Editor’s note: Ginny Ratsoy reviews the latest work of two of B.C.’s top playwrights, Joan MacLeod (born 1954) and Kevin…
Read more #408 Grizzly twins & latter-day saints
The Cure for Death by Lightning: A Play Adapted from the Novel by Gail Anderson-Dargatz by Daryl Cloran Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $18.95 / 9781772012057 * Talker’s Town and The Girl who Swam Forever: Two Plays by Nelson Gray and Marie Clements Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2018 $18.95 / 9781772012019 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published Aug. 15,…
Read more #344 Curative plays
The Cinderella Campaign: First Canadian Army and the Battles for the Channel Ports by Mark Zuehlke Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017 $37.95 / 9781771620895 Reviewed by Norm Fennema First published April 30, 2018 * Prolific historian Mark Zuehlke describes how battle-hardened but “woefully understrength” Canadian soldiers chased retreating Germans north towards the Seine River in…
Read more #295 Cinderella Campaign revisited
Garage Criticism: Cultural Missives in an Age of Distraction by Peter Babiak Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2016 $20.00 / 9781772140507 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published October 24, 2017 * Fortunate is the reviewer who, confronting the blank page after finishing reading, finds her most pressing concern is how to do such a fine book justice….
Read more #189 Skimming is for milk, not reading
The White Angel by John MacLachlan Gray Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017 $29.95 / 9781771621465 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published Sept. 8, 2017 * The challenges of writing historical fiction are manifold. Writers must capture both the exterior (surface and sociological details of a time they know only through research) and the interior…
Read more #167 Janet Smith & Wong Foon Sing
First published Aug. 16, 2017 REVIEW: All the World’s a Stage: The Story of Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach By Jayne Seagrave Victoria: Heritage House, 2017. $29.95 / 9781772031768 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * In All the World’s a Stage, Jayne Seagrave has provided a history of Bard on the Beach, Vancouver’s well-known outdoor Shakespeare…
Read more #157 From stage to page
First published Jul. 6, 2017 On Island: Life Among the Coast Dwellers by Pat Carney Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2017. $21.95 / 9781771512107 Reviewed by Pam Erikson The opening story of Pat Carney’s collection On Island: Life Among the Coast Dwellers sets a fable-like tone. On a sunny, summer morning a mysterious woman releases…
Read more #147 Cats–Pat Carney’s island carnival
First published April 17, 2017 REVIEW: Speakeasy by Alisa Smith Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017. $22.95. 978-1-77162-066-6 Reviewed John Douglas Belshaw With her partner and co-writer James MacKinnon, Alisa Smith recounted their year-long attempt to eat only foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver apartment. Their collaboration, The 100-Mile Diet: A…
Read more #121 A 100-mile crime novel
The Secular Northwest: Religion and Irreligion in Everyday Postwar Life by Tina Block Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017 $32.95 / 9780774831291 Reviewed by Chelsea Horton First Published March 31, 2017 * Tina Block has examined the nature of atheism in British Columbia and Washington State in the postwar period. “This was not a universally secular region,”…
Read more #111 Leave religion at the Rockies
Surviving City Hall by Donna Macdonald Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2016 $22.95 / 9780889713208 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy First published in Jan. 22, 2017 * In 2010, the small city of Nelson, B.C., attracted the attention of The Guardian for weathering the most recent economic downturn — a feat the esteemed newspaper attributed partly to dollars…
Read more #77 Rubber chicken & pot shops
Christy Clark: Behind the Smile by Judi Tyabji Victoria: Heritage House, 2016 $32.95 / 9781772031065 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw First published Dec. 17, 2016 * This book is neither fish nor fowl. Judi Tyabji, a former MLA who broke with the Liberal Party in an acrimonious split, states at the outset that this is…
Read more #65 The Christy Clark Liberal era